"More of the same with a few perks gathered over the decade."

I am part of a very small minority group: Those who did not see Gold and Silver being the pinnacle of Pokemon. Even almost a decade after the second generation of Pokemon was put into our Game Boys, Gold and Silver was still hailed as the best generation of the series. It introduced many of the elements we see today, such as dark and steel types, a clock that keeps track of night and day as the real world does, hold items, genders, etc. Looking back on it now, it's the most important installment of the series. HG and SS lacks the legacy that the original games had because it does not throw in any game-changing mechanics, but instead has everything that has been thrown in since the past two generations and puts them into this "classic" follow-up.

The question remains: Is it as good as Gold and Silver? Actually, it's better because it has been blessed with the post-GSC features such as natures and separation of moves by physical and special instead of having types be one or the other. HG and SS has everything that made up the past near decade and a half of the franchise and more, with apps, Pokethlon, the walker, an improved post-game battle tower, and more. It gives us everything we want and more, but also takes away the ability to by game corner coins, forcing us non-JP players to play the coin flip for hours (which doesn't cost anything, but most of us would be happier with just buying our way to Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, etc.).

However, sad to say that the biggest flaws from GSC are also the biggest flaws in this remake: The slowest grinding out of all the games and a significantly more interesting post-game. You don't play GSC because of your love of Jhoto, but instead to come back into the arms of Kanto, but that reunion will have to wait until you mindlessly fight off for hours on end enough Tentacruels outside of Goldenrod City to the brink of near extinction. Don't count on rematching more than three or four trainers a day. On the plus side most of them give you items like proteins for defeating them, making the delays in rematching more forgivable. Jhoto is still the smallest region in the series, so even if you find yourself several levels higher than the four or fifth Gym leader, don't be fazed if you end up on even grounds with Claire.

HG and SS throws us back in time with all the new stuff that came into the games within the past decade and more, while still leaving us with some of the things that bothered us about the games back at the wake of the new Millennium. It's a bitter-sweet remake, but thankfully, mostly sweet.